It has been customary for many years to mount adhesive-surfaced articles such as bandages, name tags, and transfer decalcomanias onto a release liner from which the article has to be peeled prior to placement at its intended location. Often, it is difficult to separate an edge of the article from the release liner, and even after this is accomplished the article invariably curls up and frequently becomes unmanageable. The placement of such an adhesive-surfaced article after removal from the liner is generally complicated by the difficulty, if not altogether impossibility, of holding the article in such a manner as to avoid contaminating or damaging the adhesive surface.
Articles which can be applied to an adherend without the necessity of touching the surface have been proposed. Thus, it is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,703,083, among others, that the adhesive surface of the article may have releasably attached thereto a plurality of overlaying protective facing members which have finger gripping portions by which the facing members may be stripped from the adhesive without touching the adhesive. Although such a packaging construction allows for improved handling and placement of adhesive-surfaced articles, the often different release rates of the various protective facing members makes it difficult to avoid curling, wrinkling, folding, stretching, or surface-contamination of the adhesive-surfaced article during application. Where the adhesive-surfaced article is extremely fragile, this curling, wrinkling, folding, and stretching of the adhesive-surfaced article simply cannot be avoided.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,899,077 discloses another means for packaging an article having adhesive zones. In accordance with this patent, a strip package is provided for a flat adhesive bandage, the bandage having a central pad and adhesive zones on each side thereof, and the adhesive zone being covered by removable protective foils. At least one of the protective foils is automatically removed when the bandage is removed from the strip package. Such a strip package does not provide a means for the handling and placement of fragile, adhesive-surfaced articles so as to avoid curling, wrinkling, and stretching the adhesive-surfaced article.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,260,260 discloses a surgical drape or laminate comprising a flexible plastic sheet with a pressure sensitive adhesive on the center portion of one of its surfaces, a cover sheet releasably attached thereto, and a pair of handles or strips, to provide removal means, attached to marginal portions of the flexible plastic sheet by means of a permanent adhesive. Such a laminate is of limited use as a bandage or decal due to the presence of the permanent pair of handles.
It is known in the art to attach a substantial, adhesive-surfaced sheet-like article to an adherend, the purpose of which is to hold a device, such as a bioelectrode, in position on a living body. This article has an adhesive surface which is covered with a release sheet having a central scored portion for separate removal therefrom. However, much smaller ratios of total article area to apertured release sheet area, and much greater article thickness, are required in the prior art article than are useful in the present invention. In addition, the utility disclosed herein is very different from the prior art usage.